Why do dolphins carry sponges?

Tool use is rare in wild animals, but of widespread interest because of its relationship to animal cognition, social learning and culture. Despite such attention, quantifying the costs and benefits of tool use has been difficult, largely because if tool use occurs, all population members typically e...

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Autores principales:	Janet Mann, Brooke L Sargeant, Jana J Watson-Capps, Quincy A Gibson, Michael R Heithaus, Richard C Connor, Eric Patterson
Formato:	article
Lenguaje:	EN
Publicado:	Public Library of Science (PLoS) 2008
Materias:	Medicine R Science Q
Acceso en línea:	https://doaj.org/article/f385bde7809042fabb9039ef57b129a4
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spelling	oai:doaj.org-article:f385bde7809042fabb9039ef57b129a42021-11-25T06:18:15ZWhy do dolphins carry sponges?1932-620310.1371/journal.pone.0003868https://doaj.org/article/f385bde7809042fabb9039ef57b129a42008-01-01T00:00:00Zhttps://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/pmid/19066625/pdf/?tool=EBIhttps://doaj.org/toc/1932-6203Tool use is rare in wild animals, but of widespread interest because of its relationship to animal cognition, social learning and culture. Despite such attention, quantifying the costs and benefits of tool use has been difficult, largely because if tool use occurs, all population members typically exhibit the behavior. In Shark Bay, Australia, only a subset of the bottlenose dolphin population uses marine sponges as tools, providing an opportunity to assess both proximate and ultimate costs and benefits and document patterns of transmission. We compared sponge-carrying (sponger) females to non-sponge-carrying (non-sponger) females and show that spongers were more solitary, spent more time in deep water channel habitats, dived for longer durations, and devoted more time to foraging than non-spongers; and, even with these potential proximate costs, calving success of sponger females was not significantly different from non-spongers. We also show a clear female-bias in the ontogeny of sponging. With a solitary lifestyle, specialization, and high foraging demands, spongers used tools more than any non-human animal. We suggest that the ecological, social, and developmental mechanisms involved likely (1) help explain the high intrapopulation variation in female behaviour, (2) indicate tradeoffs (e.g., time allocation) between ecological and social factors and, (3) constrain the spread of this innovation to primarily vertical transmission.Janet MannBrooke L SargeantJana J Watson-CappsQuincy A GibsonMichael R HeithausRichard C ConnorEric PattersonPublic Library of Science (PLoS)articleMedicineRScienceQENPLoS ONE, Vol 3, Iss 12, p e3868 (2008)
institution	DOAJ
collection	DOAJ
language	EN
topic	Medicine R Science Q
spellingShingle	Medicine R Science Q Janet Mann Brooke L Sargeant Jana J Watson-Capps Quincy A Gibson Michael R Heithaus Richard C Connor Eric Patterson Why do dolphins carry sponges?
description	Tool use is rare in wild animals, but of widespread interest because of its relationship to animal cognition, social learning and culture. Despite such attention, quantifying the costs and benefits of tool use has been difficult, largely because if tool use occurs, all population members typically exhibit the behavior. In Shark Bay, Australia, only a subset of the bottlenose dolphin population uses marine sponges as tools, providing an opportunity to assess both proximate and ultimate costs and benefits and document patterns of transmission. We compared sponge-carrying (sponger) females to non-sponge-carrying (non-sponger) females and show that spongers were more solitary, spent more time in deep water channel habitats, dived for longer durations, and devoted more time to foraging than non-spongers; and, even with these potential proximate costs, calving success of sponger females was not significantly different from non-spongers. We also show a clear female-bias in the ontogeny of sponging. With a solitary lifestyle, specialization, and high foraging demands, spongers used tools more than any non-human animal. We suggest that the ecological, social, and developmental mechanisms involved likely (1) help explain the high intrapopulation variation in female behaviour, (2) indicate tradeoffs (e.g., time allocation) between ecological and social factors and, (3) constrain the spread of this innovation to primarily vertical transmission.
format	article
author	Janet Mann Brooke L Sargeant Jana J Watson-Capps Quincy A Gibson Michael R Heithaus Richard C Connor Eric Patterson
author_facet	Janet Mann Brooke L Sargeant Jana J Watson-Capps Quincy A Gibson Michael R Heithaus Richard C Connor Eric Patterson
author_sort	Janet Mann
title	Why do dolphins carry sponges?
title_short	Why do dolphins carry sponges?
title_full	Why do dolphins carry sponges?
title_fullStr	Why do dolphins carry sponges?
title_full_unstemmed	Why do dolphins carry sponges?
title_sort	why do dolphins carry sponges?
publisher	Public Library of Science (PLoS)
publishDate	2008
url	https://doaj.org/article/f385bde7809042fabb9039ef57b129a4
work_keys_str_mv	AT janetmann whydodolphinscarrysponges AT brookelsargeant whydodolphinscarrysponges AT janajwatsoncapps whydodolphinscarrysponges AT quincyagibson whydodolphinscarrysponges AT michaelrheithaus whydodolphinscarrysponges AT richardcconnor whydodolphinscarrysponges AT ericpatterson whydodolphinscarrysponges
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Why do dolphins carry sponges?

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